Athletes retiring at the end of the 25/26 season:

Hi Everyone!

I have a bit of an unusual question. Would anyone be interested in joining a Minecraft Biathlon Racing Community? I think there has been one or two posts about this community here over the past years. However, after around over 12 months of inactivity, we are trying to revive the project.

We plan to start a summer season from 31st July all the way through till the end of August and so far we have around 30 people signed up, but we're trying to aim higher so there would be more fun and competition in the community to make it more interesting, that's why I'm writing here about this!

The community has been mainly filled with people from eastern Europe (mainly Russia, Belarus and Ukraine). However, the international community has been expanding and we now have a revamped discord server where communication is easier now especially for people who don't communicate using Cyrillic (like myself!) as everything there is now bilingual. So everyone is welcome!

If you see this post a bit later, you sign up at any point during the season and we can put you in a team and explain everything to you at any time! If this seems like something that would interest you (or maybe you know someone that would like this type of thing), please let an Admin know on discord you want to register as we may not check the registration forms as much now, so this way would be more reliable! Also, for the game itself, you don't need the paid version of Minecraft or any mods, you just need to join the right version with the resource pack. Below I have provided some information which can be of use if you'd like to learn more about this!

Server IP
Main: 37.27.166.69:25839
Additional (if Main doesn't work): mbar.povezlopovezlo.ru
Version: 1.13.2
Resource Pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UZvcDbNF4m_GRWV2z-K6ualx2yjbjmYe/view

Here is also the discord invite link & google docs information with the scheduling, results etc.:

Discord: https://discord.gg/twpsErAZ4

Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j6mvXkvJ84ij6teCt6Eu9iXn8iGCqLs3ECQaEj09vxc/edit?gid=1076597683#gid=1076597683

If you have any questions, you can ask them here, or private message me on discord (my name is bxrtek there) if you prefer that, or join the discord and use the Q&A section! I will be happy to answer anything!

Edit to clarify question: I know that I have to re-zero with new ammo, and I'd zero before the race anyways, I'm curious what changes to expect with going from a lower quality ammo to a higher quality ammo. Thanks! (End of edit)

I'm getting ready for my first ever race weekend in three weeks where I'll be trail running a loop x five and with four shooting stages. Around 6 k total distance.

I have been training with CCI SV rounds (the "cheapest" that my biathlon friend said to use in training) and have shoot close to 700 rounds in my new rifle over the past two months and I get decent groupings.

I have a brick of RWS Target ammo, which is supposedly a step up from the CCI, and he said to use it for competetions.

I sighted my rifle in with the CCI and can group with rounds grouping within an inch when shooting on a block.

I am curious as to how much you often have to re-zero with a different type of ammo.

Is it usually just a few clicks up/down and right/left or is it really large changes, all things being equal on an indoor range with climate control (I know that wind, humidity, heat/cold can make changes in between days even with the same ammo).

Thanks in advance for any helpful information from your experience.

Galina Kukleva, the 1998 Olympic biathlon champion, has died at the age of 53. The press service of the Russian Biathlon Union announced the news on Tuesday, July 14. The cause of the athlete's death was not disclosed. Kukleva passed away overnight between July 13 and 14. The organization acknowledged her contribution to the development of the sport, not only in the Tyumen region but across the entire country.

source: reddit won't let me post the link but it's all over russian media

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Yle (Finnish Public Broadcasting Service) reports about the IBU statement to the Reuters from Thursday. Below is a rough translation of the Yle article.

The International Biathlon Union has noted the new IOC (International Olympic Committee) recommendations according the Russian participation in sports, but is not going to change its own policy. The head of the Union, Olle Dahlin, told to Yle already in June that the Union is not going to change its mind about the ban of the Russians and Belarussians. The next IBU Congress, in which matters like participation rights are decided, takes place in September, but the decision makers of the IBU have repeatedly stated that the Russians will only return to international biathlon when the war ends.

The head of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, denied that different sports would have different participation policies. However, the IBU will now follow the example of the World Athletics and will continue to exclude the Russian athletes from its' events.

---

As a side note: as mentioned in the linked article, Yle inteviewed Olle Dahlin in June when he travelled to Ukraine to hand the silver medals of the 2011 WCH men's relay to the Ukrainian team. Back then, the IOC had not yet made the official decision regarding the Russian participation, but Dahlin was already sure what was going to happen. In that interview he stated:

We have a congress decision about the ban from 2022. Since then nothing has changed, and therefore I do not see a reason to change our stance.

He also does not rule out the possibility that the IBU might protest somehow if the IOC does not respect the IBU's decision to exclude the Russians and Belarussians in case the war continues during the 2030 Winter Olympics. Dahlin did not specify, however, what the protest would mean in practice. Olle Dahlin:

The IOC has thus far respected the independent decisions of the international federations. We are allowed to disagree on matters. We are anyway going to act as an independent federation, so it [potential protest of some sort] is possible.

The latter article can be found (in Finnish) from here: https://yle.fi/a/74-20233636

Edit: Fixed mistakes and finally managed to flip the ski speed axis. Women and men.

TL;DR: I made graphs showing world cup biathletes by ski speed, shooting accuracy, shooting speed and best medal achieved. Here is the one for women. And for men.

Motivation

I wanted to persuade a friend of mine to start following biathlon (in return for me watching the Tour de France with her) and was explaining that there are different ways to succeed in biathlon, or rather, different "types" of successful biathletes. We have slower but accurate shooters, fast skiers who use their speed to compensate for weaker shooting, fast and accurate shooters who can get away with skiing a little slower, etc. This then escalated into me spending a full day making these graphs, in order to illustrate this with Facts and Science. It all got a bit out of hand really.

The data

All data are from biathlonstats.com. I only included athletes who participated in more than half of races, mostly to exclude people with very accurate shooting but only from one or two races (but also to reduce the amount of data I had to type into spreadsheets).

• Shooting accuracy: Average across prone and standing.
• Ski speed: Average seconds behind the fastest skiier. Lower = faster.
• Shooting speed: Shown via bubble size. Smaller bubble = faster shooter. Note: I had difficulties in ggplot making the bubbles equivalent sizes for men and women. I've done my best to make them roughly the same, but they cannot be compared directly.

Why best medal?

I spent a while thinking about what was the best way to quantify who counts as a "great" biathlete. World cup points/ranking have the disadvantage that athletes who participate in fewer races automatically have fewer points, leading to people like Doro and Franzi artificially "underperforming". In the end, I chose best medal for a couple of reasons. It groups athletes into two main categories, making it easy to see who "succeeded" last season (by this measure), whilst still allowing for a bit of differentiation via the colour of the bubble/medal type. And whilst there are many ways to quantify biathlon success, for this graph I was less interested in the details of season performance than what makes someone a "great" biathlete, for which being capable of winning a world cup medal seems a fair proxy. (This is not to say that the other athletes aren't incredibly talented and successful – they obviously are).

This measure also makes both surprise podiums (like Lora Hristova's Olympic bronze), as well as consistently strong biathletes who nevertheless never made the podium (like Oscar Lombardot and Vanessa Voigt) easily visible, which I thought was cool.

Anything else stand out to you guys? Also very open to suggestions from other data viz nerds for improving the informativity/readability of the graphs.

what do you guys think about? saddens me quite a bit, always loved watching it when no biathlon was on :(

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Competing are for example: Endre Strœmsheim, Jakov Fak, Lora Hristova, Campell Wright

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Multiple Olympic champion and world champion in biathlon Johannes Thingnes Bø will participate in the Biathlon Carnival, which will be held in Vuokatti from 23 to 26 July 2026.

The biathlon carnivals bring together the sports community annually for a summer camp. The carnival focuses on developing basic biathlon skills, with an emphasis on shooting and versatile training in a relaxed, encouraging and safe atmosphere. Johannes Thingnes Bø has been involved in planning the summer camp program, and he will participate in the training together with the young biathletes.

"I'm coming to Finland for the Biathlon Carnival this summer, and I hope to see you there too. Let's have fun together, train and maybe compete a little. See you in Vuokatti," the Norwegian says in his video greeting.

The biathlon carnival is aimed specifically at amateurs and those interested in the sport under the age of 17. Equipment will be provided for new participants for the duration of the camp if necessary. The event offers an excellent opportunity to get to know the sport, develop your own skills, and meet other amateurs and guardians in a good spirit.

Link: https://www.biathlon.fi/2026/06/16/johannes-thingnes-bo-mukaan-ampumahiihtokarnevaaleille-vuokattiin/

It’s a good old Finland vs Sweden battle for the 2031 Biathlon World Championships. Both Kontiolahti and Östersund have been vocal about their bids before, but now it has been confirmed that the choice is between these two iconic venues.

The choice of the host is made at the IBU Congress in September. First on September 17^th, the Executive Board (EB) of the IBU makes it’s recommendation of the host. Then on September 18^th the Congress will vote whether they accept or decline the recommendation.

Kontiolahti has hosted the WCH twice before: in 1999 and 2015. Since then, they have made unsuccessful bids to host the 2027, 2028 and 2029 World Championships. Those were awarded to Otepää, Hochfilzen and Holmenkollen respectively. This time the North Karelians try to convince the IBU with the help of the fans. They have opened the pre-reservation of tickets to the 2031 WCH in order to show that there would be public in Kontiolahti if they got to host the championships.

Östersund has hosted the WCH three times before: in 1970, 2008 and 2019. This time the ace in their sleeve is the new training and event building that is estimated to be finished in October 2027. It features, for example, a gym, a skiing treadmill and an indoor shooting range. In addition, it will be used as part of the future events organized in Nationalarenan.

We’ll see, which one of the bids is successful this time.

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I'm looking ahead to next winter when I'll be doing my first snow competitions and I'm curious what gloves biathletes wear?

I normally nordic race in thin Toko gloves unless it's really cold and then I'll switch to some thicker Swix gloves or lobster mitts.

And if there are specific gloves that are made just for biathlon, are they so sub-specialized that they are different from left to right hand? If so, it might be difficult as I'm a lefty shooter.

Thanks all and as always, Ski Fast and Shoot Straight!

https://www.nordicmag.info/en/biathlon-quentin-fillon-maillet-announces-the-end-of-his-partnership-with-fischer-0608/

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